participation

The growing importance of being able to craft a multimedia-based message/narrative [Christian]

On 07/23/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, animation, communications, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, expectations, graphics, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, marketing/social marketing, multimedia, participation, second screen apps, social learning / networks, social media, story, storytelling, tablets, technologies for your home, television, transmedia, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I love multimedia because it enables me to craft a message using audio, video, text, graphics, and even animations. The Internet extends the power of this communication by allowing that message to go forth 24 x 7 x 365 in multi-directional ways — even allowing others to join in the conversations and participate.

The following item made me reflect upon on how important this is becoming to business:

Is transmedia storytelling the new digital marketing? — from rethinkeverythingblog.com by Jason Thibeault (as Scooped by siobhan-o-flynn onto Tracking Transmedia)

Excerpt:

How (and why) is Marketing Changing?
The first thing to understand about marketing today is that it’s all about shared experience. Consumer behavior is radically changing with respect to content consumption. No longer are people consuming most of their content on the TV, a newspaper, or even their computer. Rather, they are using a combination of channels:

From DSC:

Won’t this trend also impact students’ expectations/hopes/engagement?
What do we need to do to help youth build these skillsets?

Also related/see:

The rise, implications & benefits of the second screen — from newsworks.org.uk by Mark Challinor
Telegraph Media Group’s director of mobile Mark Challinor says in this new era of second screens, news companies must create content that helps consumers to multi-task on multiple platforms with multiple devices.

Excerpt:
Watching television – or even reading a newspaper – with a smartphone and/or tablet device is becoming one of the most popular leisure activities of this “mobile age”. In turn, publishers such as ourselves are trying to find ways to capitalise on this somewhat new consumer behaviour of real-time interaction, which, more often than not, includes social media. This type of interaction, referred to as “the second screen” or “the companion device”, has become not just a latest hot topic of discussion all over social media blogs; it is a huge development for the mobile app industry and a target-rich environment for our advertisers.

Emerging markets’ second-screen boost with 1BN smart devices by 2014 — from rapidtvnews.com by Joseph O’Halloran
Excerpt:
New research by IDC has revealed that it won’t just be Western Europe and North America forming happy hunting grounds for second-screen services and applications. The analyst says it is clear that demand for smart connected devices is quickly shifting from developed to emerging markets and that by the end of 2014, global shipments of smart connected devices such as PCs, tablets, and smartphones will exceed surpass 1.7 billion units, with roughly one billion units delivered to emerging markets. The emerging markets are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% over the 2012-2017 forecast period, compared to the 7% CAGR expected in developed markets.

From DSC:
The way we interact with digital video may never be the same again. Consider the following developments/items:

Touchcast.com

How TouchCast plans to disrupt TV watching

TouchCast: a television studio in your iPad — from agbeat.com by Jennifer Walpole .

interlude.fm

Interactive video startup Interlude raises $16m from Intel, Sequoia and other big names — from thenextweb.com by Robin Wauters

Flixmaster.com

cinematique.com:

What is MTEVIDEO?
The Motion Touch Enabled Video platform allows you touch on the things that interest you as they move within video, adding them to your personal boutique so you can learn, shop, and share from any MTEVIDEO whenever you want.

With Cinematique’s ‘touch-enabled’, shoppable videos, product placement might not be so bad — from techcrunch.com by Anthony Ha

From DSC:
I sure hope that we can use these sorts of tools, concepts, and technologies within the educational/training-related realms! More choice. More control. Participation. Interactivity. Engagement.

Very sharp!!! A glimpse into the future of digital video & online learning! Lifelong learners of the world, let me hear some noise! [Christian]

On 07/09/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, attention, convergence, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, love of learning, motivation, multi-touch, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, participation, presentations, student-related, technologies for your home, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), user interface design, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
First, take a look at this interactive video from the Wall Street Journal:

For further information on that video, you can also see:

‘Obamacare’ Made Easy to Understand — from /live.wsj.com
David Wessel discusses a new WSJ.com interactive video that helps viewers better understand the Affordable Health Care Act as well as its slate of rules and penalties.

From DSC:

Excellent, creative use of technology! Lifelong learners of the world, let me hear some noise! Your learning futures just got much more interesting, dynamic, and interactive!

You will be given more choice and more control than you’ve ever had before. You will be able to interact with digital videos, drill down, take some rights turns and come back again, and more.

For example, during the WSJ video, you can click on the radio within the digital video in order to “drill down” and listen to more about a certain topic — while the main presentation “holds on”…

…you can jump ahead to the next marker…pause…rewind…click to get some further text-based information/details on a topic of interest:

…and more. In other words, you have more choice, more control in your learning experience. This, at minimum, is a piece of online learning’s — and digital video’s — future.

But I hear you saying, so what? Flash has been doing this for a while now. And that, my friends, is the only downside I see in this implementation from the WSJ — it was done using Flash.

As Flash won’t fly on iOS-based devices, an HTML5-based solution needs to come into the picture…and this is where Touchcast shines!

As Paul Sawers explains, you can add interactive, browsable layers onto your video and deliver it in an HTML5-based format.

An excerpt from Paul’s article:

Things start to get really interesting with video apps (vApps). TouchCast lets you create videos that are layered with live Web pages, video clips, maps, Twitter streams and other facets of the digital world. “We’re actually claiming that this is the future of the Web,” says Segal, TouchCasts’s CEO.

Indeed, TouchCast’s vApp library is ‘open’, so developers can create and customize their own vApps.

Bottom line:
“Digital textbooks” will never be the same again (not to mention learning modules, transmedia, ads, presentations, digital storytelling, and more)!

Also see:

TouchCast aims to redefine the web video

Tagged with: learning theories

My reflections on Katherine Brodsky’s interesting article: “The new storytelling frontier”

On 06/11/2013, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, Canada, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, immersion, innovation, interactivity, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, machine-to-machine communications, media/film, memory, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), online learning, online media, participation, play, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, story, storytelling, streams of content, student-related, technologies for your home, television, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

The New Storytelling Frontier — from huffingtonpost.ca by Katherine Brodsky

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Long gone are the days of static content. Consumers are looking for more and transmedia storytelling offers an increasingly popular approach for creating property-based universes. Transmedia content itself is also evolving. It’s becoming more dynamic, more interactive, offering greater opportunities to engage audiences with creative user-generated content that adds to the storytelling experience. It is becoming more communal.

…

Although traditional models allow for greater control of content, strategies that can engage fans more actively and allow them to express themselves and even contribute to the development of a show, get them more involved and, ultimately, more willing to buy in.

From DSC:
As the use of storytelling is a powerful tool for learning, I can’t help but wonder…

What might be some creative possibilities arising from the developing world of transmedia that students and/or educational organizations could develop?
In what ways could we build more interactivity and social networking into our “digital textbooks” and mobile-based applications?
Would transmedia-based content help maintain interest, engagement, attention?
Would it help establish longer term memories/recall?
How might it help build students creativity and foster more experimentation/play/participation?
What roles might students play? (Writer, videographer, sound designer, actress, programmer, game designer, project manager, entrepreneur, etc.)
What tools and skills would students need to create their own transmedia-based experiences?
What new forms of storytelling might evolve from these efforts?
Could transmedia work its way into blended learning models?
Are new opportunities for immersing oneself in a particular subject matter becoming more available through transmedia-based experiences?
Could streams of content be wrapped in transmedia-based experiences?

The folks needed to create the next generation of learning: Computers can’t touch this. [Christian]

On 05/03/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, analytics, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), Bring your own device (BYOD), collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, faculty, global / globalization, graphics, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, machine-to-machine communications, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, music, Near Field Communication (NFC), new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, photography, play, reinvent, research, second screen apps, simulations, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, society, story, storytelling, streams of content, teachers, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, videoconferencing, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, web design and production, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
What we need is a major hackathon — or an organization with deep pockets — that can bring together folks from a variety of disciplines including:

Subject Matter Experts
Instructional Designers
Cognitive Psychologists
Computer Scientists and/or those exerienced with learning analytics/data mining, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Those gifted in film/media/videography/photography
Great storytellers/writers (including writing for transmedia-based learning experiences)
Folks who can create engaging, educational games
Designers
- Web
- Graphic
- Interface
- User experience
- User interaction
- Those gifted in creating multimedia-based content
Musicians
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) experts
Mobile learning experts
Those knowledgeable with second screens/M2M communications
Animators
Illustrators
Social media experts
Accessibility experts
Researchers
Those gifted in creating augmented reality-based apps
Legal/copyright experts
& others

We need for these specialists to collaborate in order to create the next generation of learning. Anyone who can bring these skillsets together and experiment with creating materials will have significantly contributed something to the current generations and to future generations!

And, in the words of M.C. Hammer, computers “can’t touch this!” Why? Because “learning is messy!”

What fields did I miss?
Please leave your thoughts and
feedback in the comments section.

Excerpts from transmedia storytelling presentation by Gianluca Fiorelli

On 04/25/2013, in career development, communications, computer science, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, e-books, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, human-computer interaction (HCI), immersion, informal learning, innovation, interactivity, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, media/film, multimedia, new business models, new media literacies, online media, participation, platforms, play, programming, social media, story, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Notes from DSC:

Some of the material in this presentation or the website may not be appropriate for a younger audience.
Notice how many potential jobs/roles/positions/skillsets can be explored here!

From DSC:
The word Bible is here not quite I think of as the Bible…but you’ll get the point if you review Gianluca’s presentation.
.

Questions from DSC:

What opportunities might be presented by this type of trend within the worlds of education/training? (i.e. within K-12, higher ed, the corporate world)
What sorts of streams of contents could be created for educational/training-related purposes?
What sorts of open doors are now present within the world of communications? For a church, a school, a college, a business?
How can we incorporate the use of story more effectively in our teaching and learning environments? (If we could do this, we could greatly increase our students’ ROI.)

VIDEO | The Educational Landscape in 50 Years [The Khan Academy]

On 03/14/2013, in creativity, education, education reform, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, K-12 related, more voice more choice more control, participation, real-world assignments, strategy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

VIDEO | The Educational Landscape in 50 Years — from the evoLLLution.com by The Khan Academy

Excerpt:

In this video, Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit online education provider, shares his thoughts on what the educational landscape will look like in 50 years. By 2060, Khan predicts three major shifts in education: a change to the classroom model, a change to the credential model and a change in the role of the instructor.

Tagged with: creativity • education • education reform • educational technology • engagement • future • K-12 • more choice more control • participation • real-world assignments • roles • student-related • teachers

THIS is what it could look like if students designed and owned their own learning! A very powerful piece.

On 03/12/2013, in Daniel S. Christian, engagement / engaging students, formal learning, hearts -- matters of the heart, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, love of learning, participation, passions, student-related, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
THIS is what it could look like if students OWNED their own learning and could pursue their own passions! — A powerful piece! Well worth your time if you are involved with — or concerned about — education in any way, shape, or form.

The video starts off with this troubling/deep assertion by a student (which I’m sure varies in actuality across the board):

“It’s crazy that…in a system that is meant to teach…and to help the youth, there is NO voice from the youth at all.”

From DSC:
A few radical — but powerful ideas — to help students OWN their own learning (something that they will need for the rest of their lives):

More choice, more control
Research what you want to research — “The most important thing about your question is that you ACTUALLY WANT to know the answer.”
Students pursue their own passions — be that an interest in music, art, science, aviation, or in another discipline.
Student present their findings to each other — which involves more of a team-based approach (i.e. peer pressure in a positive way here, strongly encouraging each other to do their best work so as not to let others down)
Peer evaluation
No quizzes
No grades
Often no adults in the room; if adults are there, they are acting more as guides and facilitators
Multiple types of “assignments”/activities — some individualistic, some group work, some long-term

A couple of questions kept running through the back of my mind:

Did they hand select these particular students for this program?
If so, what were the predominant characteristics of those students?

With that said, this is a very powerful piece — well worth your time to check out.

Tagged with: collaboration • Daniel S. Christian • engagement • hearts -- matters of the heart • instructional design • Keeping students engaged • learning ecosystem • love of learning • participation • passions • student-related

Items re: Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for K-12, higher ed, & the corp world

On 03/11/2013, in A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, Bring your own device (BYOD), collaboration, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, higher education, innovation, IT in HE, K-12 related, mobile learning, mobile technologies, participation, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The worlds of K-12, higher education, and corporate training/development are all seeking solid solutions to the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or the Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) solution. (The way I see it, it would sure be helpful it Apple worked with the other relevant vendors to establish better wireless networking protocols.) Anyway, below are some items on this topic:

How to BYOT for Learning? –– from shift2future.com by Brian Kuhn

Responding to the “Shift to the Future” — from seanrtech.blogspot.com by Sean Robinson

BYOD: 7 reasons to leave them to their own devices — from Donald Clark Plan B

Ten reasons the iPad is an awesome tool for classrooms and education — from isource.com with thanks to Krista Spahr, Senior Instructional Designer at Calvin College, for this resource

The 4 easiest ways to mirror the iPad (comparison chart) — from edudemic.com by Seth Hansen; working off of a similar posting from Tony Vincent

Strategies for taking flight with BYOT — from byotnetwork.com

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills identified 4 critical areas of learning for students that include creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration. In Forsyth County Schools, we’ve been working hard with parents, teachers and students to embrace learning with student-owned technologies; something we call Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT). What we know for sure is that BYOT is really more like Bring Your Own Learning because we’ve discovered that it is NOT about the technology – it IS about the learning.

From DSC:
This aligns well with Alan November’s replacing “one-to-one” with “one-to-world.”

But whether we use the acronomyns BYOD, BYOT or BYOL (or whatever), it’s all about students being able to contribute content (hopefully that they created) and participate in the discussions.

From June 2012

Vision of a Next Gen Smart Classroom from March 2010

From October 2009:
Building off of Steelcase’s media:scape product line

Tagged with: A/V • Apple • Bring your own device (BYOD) • collaboration • corporate / business world • Daniel S. Christian • emerging technologies • engagement • higher education • innovation • IT • Keeping students engaged • Mobile learning • mobile technology • participation • web-based collaboration • Wireless • workplace

Excerpt:

It’s not unusual for a science fiction television show to spin off a video game. What is unusual is linking the show and the game together on an ongoing basis, with plot elements and characters from each crossing over to the other. In April, gaming company Trion Worlds and the Syfy cable television channel will unveil Defiance, the first such crossover massively multiplayer online game (MMO) and TV show.

From DSC:

Transmedia.

Multimedia.

Interactivity.

Participation.

Gamification.

Sounds like there must be something here for the next gen of learners — and learning from the living room.

Also see:

Six fascinating, informative, and just plain good lectures on videogames in iTunes U — from forbes.com by Carol Pinchefsky

Tagged with: 21st century • Daniel S. Christian • educational gaming • engagement • engaging students • etmooc • generational differences • ideas • innovation • interactivity • K-12 • Keeping students engaged • learning from the living [class] room • multimedia • participation • technologies for the home • transmedia

Extremely powerful ideas for new types of face-to-face & web-based collaboration [Tidebreak; Christian]

On 02/01/2013, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communities of practice, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, interactivity, interface design, internet, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), online learning, online media, participation, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, project-based learning, real-world assignments, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, tablets, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, training / L&D, transmedia, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
As a team of us have been charged with putting together a new collaborative workspace/conference room, I’ve been thinking about some ideas for a new type of interface as well as some new types of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) to be used in group collaboration/web-based collaboration. I was thinking it would be good to not only display files from various devices but also to be able to share files/URLs/other resources with each other. (Some type of storage device that processes files — and scans them for viruses would be needed in addition to a large display or an interactive multitouch surface/wall.)

People within the same room could contribute files/items to a variety of “areas” — and so could others who joined in via the Internet. Here’s what I had wanted to be able to do and I had pictured in my mind:

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
.

People could select which files/URLs/resources that they wanted to contribute
.
People could select which files/URLs/resources that they wanted to download to their own devices (during and after the meeting)
.
Could be powerful in the next generation of our Smart Classrooms as well as in corporate training/learning spaces
.
Could be powerful in the what I’m envisioning in “Learning from the Living [Class] Room”
.
Could be powerful in conference room situations
.

It’s very similar to what Tidebreak has created/envisioned in their product lines.
Check out their innovative work/products/concepts!

Transforming learning spaces: 3 big ideas — from Tidebreak

Also see:

Tagged with: 21st century • A/V • collaboration • corporate / business world • corporate training / universities • Daniel S. Christian • digital audio • digital video • etmooc • higher education • K-12 • learning from the living [class] room • machine-to-machine communications • mirroring / multiple devices • multi-touch • multimedia • Near Field Communication (NFC) • web-based collaboration

Can you apply Google’s 20% time in the classroom? [Spendlow]

On 01/24/2013, in Google, ideas, K-12 related, more voice more choice more control, motivation, participation, student-related, by Daniel Christian

Can you apply Google’s 20% time in the classroom? — from guardian.co.uk/teacher-network by Stuart Spendlow
Google offers its engineers 20% of their timetable to work on their own projects. Keen to see if it could work for education, Stuart Spendlow introduced the idea to his own classroom

20% time developed a class of intrinsically motivated learners who strive to
make themselves proud without any fear whatsoever of making mistakes,
says Stuart Spendlow.
Photograph: Paul Doyle/Alamy

Tagged with: engagement • Google • ideas • K-12 • Keeping students engaged • more choice more control • participation • student-related

7th graders publish their own textbook [Vincent]

On 01/21/2013, in active learning, digital learning, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), participation, project-based learning, by Daniel Christian

7th graders publish their own textbook — from learninginhand.com by Tony Vincent

Also see:

Readz launches to provide publishers DIY solution to optimize content for tablets — from betakit.com by Humayun Khan
.
7 outstanding free books for your iPad — from educatorstechnology.com
Excerpt:
Below is a list of some excellent books for your iPad. I have curated this list over the last couple of months and I kept adding to it every time I stumble upon a resource somewhere online.I don’t know if you like reading books on your iPad or not but let me tell you this: having at least a couple of titles installed on your iPad would really be of great help particularly in those moments when you are stuck somewhere and have nothing to do but waiting. Reading is a habit ( luckily a good one ) that we can ACQUIRE by force of habituation at least in the eyes of Skinnerian theory.The more you read , the fluent you get at reading and the more used your mind becomes to the act of reading. Check out these books I selected for you. All of them are free and require iBooks. Enjoy.

Addendum on 1/22/13:

College students develop apps to help kids with algebra — from USAToday.com

Tagged with: active learning • e-books • e-publishing related items (EPUB and more) • eportfolios • new publishing models • project-based learning • publishing • student-related

Speciality classroom technologies [1-17-13 Converge Special Report Update/Webinar]

On 01/21/2013, in A/V -- audio/visual, Adobe, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, immersion, innovation, K-12 related, learning spaces, multimedia, new media literacies, participation, smart classrooms, by Daniel Christian

Specialty classroom technologies — from centerdigitaled.com

Kristy Chapman | Special Education Director | Union County | Board of Education, GA
Kyle Li | Full-time Game & Learning Instructor | School of Art, Media, and Technology | Parsons, The Newschool for Design, NY
Moses A. Ojeda | Principal (I.A.) | Thomas A. Edison Career & Technical Education High School, NY
Denise Spence | Magnet Lead Technology Teacher | Academy for Technology Excellence | Academy for Digital Excellence | Academy for Game Design and Programming Excellence | Dunbar High School, FL

Session was moderated by Tom Ryan, Ph.D. | Sr. Fellow, Center for Digital Education | Former CIO, Albuquerque Public Schools

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